You feel very romantic when you're in a ball gown. Everyone

In the words of Carolina Herrera, the great oracle of elegance, there is revealed a secret of both the body and the spirit: “You feel very romantic when you’re in a ball gown. Everyone should wear one once in a while.” This is not merely the observation of a designer, but a timeless truth about human dignity, beauty, and transformation. For the ball gown is more than fabric and thread—it is a symbol, a vessel through which the ordinary is lifted into the realm of the extraordinary.

The ancients understood the power of garments. Kings and queens robed themselves in silks and jewels, not for vanity alone, but because attire could transform the soul, awakening within it the sense of majesty and purpose. To don a crown, to wrap oneself in flowing robes, was to step into a role larger than the self. So too does the ball gown awaken something long hidden—the capacity for grace, for poise, for romantic wonder that lies dormant in the everyday.

Think of the grand courts of Europe, where women in luminous gowns swept across marble floors, and men in formal attire bowed in awe. The ball was not only an evening of dance, but a theater of transformation, where those who entered as individuals emerged as embodiments of story and dream. Even the shy, when draped in grandeur, felt themselves lifted, their hearts stirred with new confidence. In such attire, people did not merely attend a ball; they became part of its living poetry.

History offers its testimony. Recall Jacqueline Kennedy, who in the 1960s stepped into the White House as First Lady. Her gowns, often designed with elegance and restraint, carried not just beauty but power. When she appeared in a state dinner wearing an off-shoulder gown, the world did not see just fabric—it saw dignity, radiance, and a vision of America reborn in refinement. Clothing, in her case, was not shallow decoration; it was a declaration of identity and destiny. Thus we see that what Herrera speaks of is not trivial but deeply human: the act of adornment awakens the romantic within, the part of us that dreams, aspires, and shines.

The deeper meaning of her words is this: we are not only creatures of thought and labor, but of ritual and beauty. To wear a ball gown—or any garment that carries weight and grace—is to remind ourselves that life is not only survival but celebration. We clothe ourselves not only to cover the body, but to reveal the spirit. And when once in a while we allow ourselves such transformation, we are reminded of our own worth, of the joy of spectacle, of the delight in becoming more than our daily selves.

The lesson, then, is clear: do not neglect the rituals of beauty. Whether it is a ball gown, a suit of fine tailoring, or even the simple act of dressing with care, allow yourself moments where you step into something greater than the ordinary. For these moments are not frivolous; they are nourishment for the soul, reminders that life must also be adorned with joy, elegance, and the romantic.

Therefore, O listener, do not pass your days only in work and plainness. Let there be festivals, let there be occasions of splendor. Wear the ball gown, wear the suit of dignity, adorn yourself with the poetry of cloth. For in those moments you will feel not only dressed but transformed—awakened to a truth the ancients always knew: that beauty uplifts, elegance inspires, and ritual garments can call forth the noblest parts of the soul.